Tomppa – Comics, Illustration, Concept Art

Last year, after I won the Talenthouse contest by Todd McFarlane and Stan Lee, I was approached by Jörg Krismann (who co-runs the German Comic Magazine COMIXENE) concerning an article for the German Comic Report 2012 about me, my trip to the US and my experiences there. Of course I was happy to be a part of this project, as the Comic Report is one of the most important publications about the German comic scene and market.

And now it is finally published, and there is a 4 page article in it about me!

If you want to order a copy (only in German though), you can do this here.

Many thanks again to Jörg Krismann and Matthias Hofmann for having me in this issue!

Among some exciting insights into my trip to Todd McFarlane´s studio and the San Diego Comic Con, the article also features a new piece of Counselor artwork, which I am presenting you here now as well.

It shows, that The Counselor can do more than just reading in his book, if he or someone else is in trouble

Enjoy!

Ich hatte schon in einigen vorangegangenen Posts darüber geschrieben bzw. auch Bilder und Designs gezeigt: Perrudja´s und mein aktuelles Comicprojekt SACHSWULF. Perrudja und ich arbeiteten bereits in 2010 an einer Kurzgeschichte mit dem Titel NACHTS, welches wir auf myComics veröffentlichten.

Nun sind wir soweit, dass wir konkret einen Verlag für das SACHSWULF Projekt suchen, mit den Materialien, die wir zu diesem Zwecks eigens angefertigt haben. Dazu gehören außer 8 Comicseiten auch ein Exposée zum Inhalt und Form des Comicprojekts, sowie Einblicke in die Entstehung des bisherigen Materials. All dies wird derzeit in einem hochwertigen Album gedruckt, das wir interessierten Verlagen gerne zur Verfügung stellen.

An dieser Stelle möchte ich aber zusätzlich einen kurzen Überblick über das Projekt geben.

SACHSWULF ist ein Epos über Liebe und Hass, Sehnsucht und Schmerz, Kampf und Aufopferung. Historie vermischt sich gekonnt mit Fantasy-Elementen.

Die Handlung ist angesiedelt im 7. Jahrhundert nach Christus und beginnt am nördlichen Rand der Alpen. Es ist die Zeit der Landnahme durch die Baiowarioz, heute als Bayern bekannt. Es gibt kaum noch Reste der ursprünglich römisch-keltischen Bevölkerung. Nachdem die Baiowarioz das Alpenvorland besiedelt haben, dringen sie nun in die Berge selbst ein und treffen dort auf einen mächtigen Gegner.

Wesen der Andernwelt haben in den Bergen ihr Rückzugsgebiet gefunden. Mit den Kelten war eine Nachbarschaft möglich gewesen, da diese die Alpen nicht kolonisiert hatten. Mit den Baiowarioz allerdings verändert sich alles. Sie machten die Bergwelt urbar, und vor allem bringen sie eine fanatische neue Religion mit, die die Wesen der Andernwelt unterschiedslos für teuflisch erklärt: Das Christentum.

SACHSWULF ist ein Comic im frankobelgischen Stil, angelegt auf 5 Bände. Im Folgenden zeige ich 8 Seiten aus dem ersten Band. Diese sind bewusst zur Hälfte in schwarz/weiß und zur Hälfte in der Bleistiftversion gehalten, um Verlagen die Möglichkeit zu geben, zum Einen einen Enblick in die Entstehung des Comics zu erhalten, und zum Anderen selber zu entscheiden, ob eventuell zusätzlich zu einem Coloristen, auch ein Tuscher mit einem anderen Stil eingesetzt werden sollte. Alles unter dem Gesichtspunkt am Ende die bestmögliche Optik für das Comic zu erzielen.

Die Designs zu diesem Projekt kann man übrigens noch einmal auf der Portfolio Seite dieses Blogs sehen.

Über eine Kontaktaufnahme zu diesem Projekt über die Contact Seite dieses Blogs freue ich mich!

Last week something very cool happened!

After the very cool article about me and my work on “The Counselor” was published on the Talenthouse blog, I posted the link on my Facebook page and Twitter. The article included the introduction of a new cover artwork, that I did a couple of months ago and that might be used for the first issue of “The Counselor”!

Then Todd McFarlane himself started to promote my cover artwork and with it the “The Counselor” comic by sharing my news on his Facebook pages and on Twitter! That produced quite a buzz on my Facebook page and on my website. And it was completely unexpected for me, as it was not arranged beforehand.

So the more thankful I am for this big help that I received from one of the biggest names in comic history! Thank you very much, Todd, to you and your team! I will do the best I can to present you the best possible comic book in a few months, together with my publisher Arch Enemy Entertainment!

And here are the screenshots, that I made of the postings

Last Sunday I was interviewed (in German, sorry!) for the Comic Blog “Ein Comic Leben” (A Comic Life), run by Jean Fischer. The interview was held by Tiberius N. Tarante. We talked about DER ENGEL, THE COUNSELOR and comics in general. They made a podcast out of it, which you can listen to right here:

Sprachnotiz – Tomppa auf der Berliner ComicBörse from Jean Fischer on Vimeo.

Furthermore there is a great review of my third ENGEL book on the blog as well (also in German). You can find right here.

Many thanks again to Jean and Tiberius! Was great fun!!

Two days ago, I was visited by Jana Haase from the German newspaper “Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten” (PNN), who interviewed me about my new life as a professional comic artist. I had a lot fun during that interview and send a huge Thank You to Jana.

Here´s the link to the article. It´s in German, but maybe you can use Google Translator or something like that to read it when you´re English speaking

And here´s also a scan of the article as it appears in the printed version today.

First of all: It was a lot of fun to attend the Berliner Comicbörse again!! Thanks to all who came to see me, talk to me, buy my books and/or art! It was a great pleasure once again, and I´m already looking forward to the next event in November.

Here are some pics to give you an impression:

Robert Heracles and I shared a booth. Robert sold his own comic books “Noli Me Tangere”, “Son Of The Sun” and “Aquatic Empire” as well as sketches and his art. Robert is also the writer of our joint project THE COUNSELOR together with Arch Enemy Entertainment.

And here are some of the sketches I did at the convention:

See you in November at the next Comicbörse in Berlin!

I painted this piece already around 3 months ago. It was part of my preparation for actually drawing the first COUNSELOR book, which I am doing right now. I produced some art for promotional purposes during that time, and this is one of the pieces I did. And it turned out, that it actually might be the cover of the first book. But let´s see what happens

So today is the day to finally show it to the masses, when it was featured for the first time in an awesome article about me on the Talenthouse blog. Thanks so much, Mandy, for writing this great article!

And it is also a good occasion, I believe, to introduce the publisher, I will do THE COUNSELOR with:

Arch Enemy Entertainment

I got to know William Wilson, Percy Carey and Neil Herndon at the San Diego Comic Con last year, when showing to them my portfolio and telling them about THE COUNSELOR. That´s when it all started, and now I couldn´t be happier to actually draw the first of three books and continuously exchanging great ideas with the guys from Arch Enemy. Working with them is just awesome and a great pleasure.

But nothing could have been achieved to this point without Robert Heracles, who wrote the story, that I am drawing now, and still comes up with great ideas and feedback.

But now enough of this. The book is not even finished, and so far I don´t know an exact date, when it´s gonna be published. So a lot more work to do. But I love it!

And now finally the new COUNSELOR cover art!

I posted some stuff from this project before:

SACHSWULF!

This is a comic in the franco-belgian style, which I am doing together with writer Perrudja, with whom I already did the crime-noir shortstory NACHTS.

Right now I am starting to draw some pages, to put together a sample of how the comic could look like and then showing this sample to the publishers. In fact we will produce a nice promo book with not only some pages in it, but also a synopsis of the story and some making-of stuff and some designs.

We try to find a publisher, who is willing to work with us on this project still this year. So cross fingers for us! And all you publishers out there reading this: Contact me!!!

And here is the first of all in all 8 pages I am going to draw. Enjoy!

For those, who like it more convenient, or don´t have the chance to buy a copy of DER ENGEL #3 at one of the conventions I am going to attend… Or for those, who don´t like to send me an email and order directly from me…

For all you guys out there, here´s DER ENGEL #3 available on Amazon now! Go and get your copy!!!

First convention of 2012 is coming up! On Sunday, the 22nd of April, the next Berliner Comicbörse will take place at the Ellington Hotel, near the KaDeWe. Opening hours are from 10 am to 4 pm.

This will be my fifth appearance at this small, but very nice comic convention right in the heart of Berlin. And there is no better time and place to introduce the third book of Berlin´s superhero DER ENGEL!

So drop by, meet me and Robert Heracles (Noli Me Tangere, Aquatic Empire) at our booth, and get your signed copy of DER ENGEL. I´ll do some sketching, too, and will be always available for a nice chat with you guys!

Oh, and did I mention that Robert is also the writer of the THE COUNSELOR books on which I am working right now? So get some firsthand news about this project as well!

See you there!